Insider’s Guide

Speak to our Sleep Fairy on01422 343 090

Speak to our Sleep Fairy on01422 343 090

The Insider’s Guide is a group-based learning course, designed by and for parent carers of children with additional needs. It focuses on building resilience and finding practical solutions to everyday challenges, encouraging parent carers to feel positive and confident in their abilities.

The main goals of the Insider’s Guide are to:

Give parents the opportunity to share and explore their journey with others

Develop trust between parents and professionals

Recognise and build upon the skills parents have already acquired

Map parents’ needs in preparation for the next part of their journey

Practise and rehearse possible strategies for building on the parents’ strengths

Develop positive solutions to problems

Encourage person-centred thinking

The courses are jointly delivered by parent carers and our practitioners, with a number of Unique Ways members who took the course going on to help lead it. The course promotes partnership working, bridging the gap in understanding between parent carers and practitioners to create better outcomes for children. It also supports parents to recognise their own stress levels and build their own strengths in order to foster their children’s resilience.

Course Variants

The Insider’s Guide is a modular course that can be tailored to the needs of the parents attending. There are five different variants of the course, each with a different focus:

The Insider’s Guide: Under Fives

The Insider’s Guide: Under 12s

The Insider’s Guide: Teens

The Insider’s Guide: Complex Health Needs

The Insider’s Guide: Challenging Behaviour

Each course variant shares three common modules, combined with three course-specific modules that focus on the different challenges parent carers can face.

Module Four: Getting the Best Out of Others in Education – Handling tricky meetings and planning for success.

Module Five: Getting the Best Out of Others in Healthcare – Ideas and skills for working with healthcare providers.

Impact

We find that parent carers who have been on the course really value being able to build their long-term strength, and find new ways to get the best out of the people who work with their children. A number of those who take the course come back and help us deliver the course alongside our practitioners!

Here’s what parent carers have to say about the Insider’s Guide:

“This course has helped me through each stage of what I’m going through at the moment. I’m feeling positive that I can get through it.”

“I am really learning from this course – I’m using the tools to communicate more positively, and I’ve changed my thinking about how to get my feelings out and then turn them around.”

“I’ve gained confidence in being allowed to do stuff for myself, not just be someone’s parent.”

Details

Courses are run over six three-hour sessions in groups of between six and 12 parent carers.